Due to a projected $2.5 million budget shortfall facing The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the company announced this afternoon that it would make significant changes to the current season, including replacing the annual production of A Christmas Carol and canceling two upcoming productions.
“The theatre is at an inflection point, and we need to raise $2.5M through ticket sales and philanthropy by the end of 2023 to continue to produce works in the second half of our season,” said managing director of The Rep Danny Williams in a release announcing the changes. “The slower-than-hoped-for return of audiences following the pandemic exacerbated financial challenges and necessitated that we make these significant and difficult changes.”
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Williams stresses that the company is still dedicated to “bringing audiences world-class theatrical experiences from the most exciting emerging and established voices in American theatre” while navigating the challenges brought on by the budget deficit.
The Rep is directly reaching out to season subscribers and those who have already bought tickets to upcoming performances regarding season changes, which include the cancellation of The Lion and The Greatest Love for Whitney: A Tribute to Whitney Houston. The cancellation of these two productions also marks the conclusion of performances at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) for “the foreseeable future.”
The Rep is also replacing A Christmas Carol with a scaled-down holiday production. It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is adapted from the 1946 holiday film starring Jimmy Stewart and billed as a “beloved American holiday classic [come] to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast.” Local actors and crew members originally scheduled to work on and appear in A Christmas Carol will instead be a part of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.
In addition to the changes to the season, The Rep is launching a multi-year “Rally for The Rep” campaign encouraging audiences and community members to support the future of the theater. Phase One of campaign is to raise the required $2.5 million by the end of 2023 in order to produce the company’s planned spring productions, Lookingglass Theatre Company’s adaptation of Moby Dick and Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County
“We need patrons to bring friends and family and show support in any way that they can to help us ensure that the productions we have planned in 2024 can happen,” said Williams.
For tickets and more information, visit repstl.org.
